Facebook is reportedly having a tough time recruiting, which could be an ominous sign for the company

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

• Facebook is having a harder time recruiting following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a report from CNBC.
• The news outlet reported that would-be employees are turning down job offers at significantly higher rates than before.
• Facebook said CNBC's numbers "are totally wrong," but did not specify what it finds to be inaccurate about them.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

It sounds like Facebook might be having a tough time recruiting following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its two years of crises.

On Thursday, CNBC reported that the Silicon Valley giant was running into difficulties in hiring new employees. Would-be workers are reportedly turning down job offers at significantly higher rates than those seen before the news broke in March 2018 that political research firm Cambridge Analytica misappropriated tens of millions of Facebook users' data.

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Facebook is disputing the report, and spokesperson Anthony Harrison told Business Insider in an email that "these numbers are totally wrong." He did not immediately specify what was wrong about CNBC's figures. It's not clear whether Facebook is alleging that these figures are wildly inaccurate, or that they are only slightly off. CNBC reporter Sal Rodriguez told Business Insider that he stood by his reporting.

CNBC, citing unnamed sources, reported that product team software engineer acceptance rates have dropped from around 90% to 50% between late 2016 and early 2019. Meanwhile, the acceptance rate from top universities "has fallen from an average of 85% for the 2017-2018 school year to between 35% and 55% as of December," the report says.

These figures would indicate that the historically prestigious tech giant is finding it significantly harder to hire fresh talent, which would likely increase the cost of recruiting, and reflect the significant hit to its reputation Facebook has taken over the past two years.

In addition to saddling the company with extra costs, trouble attracting top talent could have a damaging impact on morale internally - demotivating employees already with the company and potentially sparking other unpredictable consequences.

In an additional statement, Harrison said:

"The assumption by unnamed sources that we are having challenges recruiting talent is completely inaccurate. The numbers speak for themselves. As a company, we grew 36% year over year from Q1-2018 to Q1-2019 ... Facebook regularly ranks high on industry lists of most attractive employers. For example, in the last year we were rated as #1 on Indeed's Top Rated Workplaces, #2 on LinkedIn's Top Companies, and #7 on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work. Our annual intern survey showed exceptionally strong sentiment and intent to return and we continue to see strong acceptance rates across University Recruiting."

He did not immediately answer a question on how the sentiment in Facebook's annual intern salary has changed over the last few years.

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